CSUF Police arrested a 43-year-old man, Edgar Martinez Vergara, on suspicion of stealing two e-bikes, a scooter, an electric scooter, and a speed bike from campus. Vergara has no affiliation with the university. An Apple AirTag placed on one of the stolen electric scooters by its owner helped officers trace the device to a Travelodge on South Euclid Street. Officers showed surveillance photos of the suspect to witnesses at the hotel, who directed them to the room where Vergara was staying. As of Friday, police had recovered the electric scooter, an e-bike, and a speed bike; a second scooter and a second e-bike remained missing. Vergara was booked into Orange County jail on one felony count of grand theft and one misdemeanor count of possessing burglary tools and was expected to appear in court Monday morning.
This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.
The Daily Titan reported the arrest occurred on 'Thursday' with the story published Monday, November 6, 2023, and Vergara expected in court that same Monday, which places the arrest on Thursday, November 2, 2023
The consumer Apple AirTag, rather than any campus security camera or patrol, was the decisive investigative tool, reflecting a broader trend of crime victims using personal tracking devices to recover stolen bikes and scooters documented at other campuses in this archive, including UC Santa Barbara
Only three of five stolen items, an electric scooter, an e-bike, and a speed bike, had been recovered by the time of publication; a second scooter and a second e-bike remained unaccounted for
This is a paraphrase built from the Daily Titan's original reporting; no independent university press release or second news outlet covering this specific arrest could be located in this session, and it is presented as a single-source account with medium confidence accordingly